Reflections on the Science and Maths Specialist Conference, University of Huddersfield, 2013

Having finally handed in the Year 2 portfolio for my part-time University of Huddersfield PGCE, it is perhaps time to reflect on what was for me the highlight of the course, the two day specialist conference held at at the University during the Easter holidays. I was in the Science and Maths group, but this was a small part of a much larger cohort of students who were all approaching the end of their PGCEs and CertEds.  

Lockside Building

Studying part time at a local centre, I was looking forward to a little taste of the student experience. Whilst I thoroughly enjoyed my previous studies with the Open University (where I had deliberately chosen courses that did not require attendance at summer schools as my then job meant it was impossible to be sure of getting the time off to attend) and having gone into industry after taking my A Levels, I have always had a nagging feeling that I missed out on the student campus experience.

The hotel myself and a couple of colleagues were booked into was on the outskirts of the city and so there really have the opportunity to try out the nightlife, in retrospect this was probably a good thing given the state of some on the second morning! Luckily I was not on the noisy motorway side of the hotel, the view over the backyard of the pub was not especially salubrious but at least I got a decent night’s sleep.

view from hotel room

Never having visited Huddersfield before I had imagined it to be a rather bigger place. Many of the buildings were constructed from a rather attractive pale stone giving a solid, well maintained but slightly old-fashioned air. There were lots of friendly staff about to guide us from the car park as we arrived and overall the organization of the event was very good.

University buildings

All the attendees had prepared a short academic paper on an aspect of teaching and learning as it relates to their specialist subject and were allotted a half hour slot in which to deliver the content and answer questions. I was up second, with a paper was on ‘Engaging Level 3 science students with “The Public Engagement with Science”: problems and opportunities’. The first person to present was very impressive which made me a tad nervous, how was I going to follow that? However once I got going the nerves dropped away and I actually found myself rather enjoying the experience.

There were two formal lectures during the conference which everyone went to in a large lecture hall; Steve Baker on Behaviour Management (useful) and Trevor Gordon on Equality and Diversity (important content but delivered in an almost a ‘revival meeting’ style which was a bit hyperactive for my taste).

Pavel, Adam, Helen and me in the lecture hall for the Steve Baker lecture

We also had a session on Using Social Media in Science and Maths Teaching which is really what inspired me to do these blog entries. I also actively Tweeted during the conference (search for the hashtag #Hud13), this proved to be a very useful and immediate way to share and receive information and experiences with other attendees - even those in different groups who I did not have the opportunity to meet - and with the staff. Following the Twitter streams of people I met (in real life or virtually) has provided me with an ongoing new stream of resources and ideas which has continued to be useful weeks after the conference finished.

lecture on day two - think I may have arrived a bit early!

The second day was rounded off with a discussion of issues from the equality lecture, which we were asked to summarise in the form of a haiku. Here is my attempt:

E&D musings / law encompasses us all / we are not a box

Hmm, I think you had to be there...

Finally, resource sharing, reflections and evaluations. All in all a very useful couple of days which in prospect had seemed like a chore but when I actually got there really fired me up with more than enough energy to finish the course and (funding application permitting) continue my studies in this area.

#Hud13 #PGCE #Huddersfield #UniversityOfHuddersfield #OU #OpenUniversity #student #lecture  #HistoryOfScience  #HSTM  #Science

ITC in the classroom: Padlet

After recently attending the Science and Maths Specialist Conference at the University of Huddersfield (#Hud13) I have decided to try a few new IT solutions in the classroom. This week I tried Padlet (formally called Wallwisher) free at http://padlet.com

(in this image I have removed the names of learners)

I tested Padlet on five on my classes (none of who had used it before) and overall it worked very well. Padlet is a web-based service allowing a number of users to 'write' messages onto a 'wall' simultaneously; the teacher sets up the wall and the students access it via a hyperlink. The students can edit their own entries but not those of their peers, the teacher can amend or delete any entry if logged on.

After some initial confusion as to what to do and how to post entries and pictures (which I largely let the learners solve for themselves, encouraging them to explore and help each other as necessary) they enthusiastically accepted the concept. Indeed we spent rather longer on the activity than I had initially planned, they seemed to get a lot out of it.

One of the five classes had a less mature attitude that the others and initially some silly messages were posted however after a warning they soon managed to produce some good work. Minor difficulties notwithstanding, all the groups quickly took to the concept and managed to do some useful research for their assignments. Ad-hoc collaboration between learners spontaneously developed and the finished Padlet walls were downloaded and posted onto the VLE for future reference.

Padlet is definitely something I will be using regularly form now on.

Tip: always log on yourself during the session so you can control the wall dynamically.

Next week I will be trialling Google Forms